Why Peggy Bundy always wore high heel mules in Married with Children

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In the legendary 1980s television comedy Married with Children, the lead character Al Bundy was a shoe store salesman. But Al was not the character best known for their shoes.

Instead it was Al Bundy’s wife Peggy who became famous for her footwear. The style of shoes that Peggy Bundy always wore in Married with Children were single strap, open-toed, high heel mules.

The rest of Peg’s fashion wardrobe consisted mainly of tight capri-length leggings with a large belt, often accompanied by an off-the-shoulder top. But whatever else Peg wore, her high heeled mules were always a mandatory accessory.

The reason Peggy Bundy always wore mules was partly because of the sexually frustrated nature of her character. Peggy’s look was cheap, tacky and promiscuous. The mule, as the ultimate “bedroom shoe” assisted with that.

In an interview for Loaded (Magazine) in July 1997, Katey Sagal (who played Peggy Bundy) referred to the importance of the high heel mules to help her get in character:

It doesn’t come together until I get dressed. The wig… and the shoes, the shoes are really important.

Peggy’s humorously tight clothing and high stiletto mules gave her a unique, small stepping walk, which Sagal also attributed to the shoes in an E! Extreme CloseUp interview in 1992:

[W]hen we went to wardrobe, about how we wanted them look – them all to look, and I thought that she should wear shoes like that… anyone who wears ‘those kind of shoes’ will walk that way.

In fact IMDb attributes the Peggy Bundy look to having been conceived by actress Katey Sagal herself:

Katey Sagal came up with the idea for her character Peggy Bundy to dress in 1960s-inspired clothing. Sagal’s reason for the look was because she wanted to parody the 1960s housewife. For her audition, Sagal had brought her own red bouffant wig, and when she won the role, producers approved the image into the show.

While Peggy wore *a lot* of different mules on Married With Children, one particular kind that she sometimes wore was the Marabou mule. A Marabou mule is simply a mule with a fluffy fur or feather adornment over the front strap such as these pink ones available from Milanoo for $54.99 (affiliate link).

An example of Peggy Bundy wearing Marabou mules can be found in the Married with Children episode “The Great Escape.” In that episode (first broadcast 21 February 1988), the entire Bundy family was forced to sleep overnight in Al’s shoe store.

As the family settle in at the store for the night, while their daughter Kelly plots to escape and go to a rock concert. Peggy Bundy can clearly be seen in the episode wearing Marabou mules.

The Great Escape episode was part of the second season of Married with Children and is out on DVD via Amazon.